CLEVELAND, Ohio - New Browns coach Mike Pettine admitted to the Bills flagship radio station Thursday that he almost pulled his name from the Browns job out of consideration for the Bills.

And with Pettine getting antsy, the Browns could ill afford to wait for Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, who couldn't be hired until after he faces the Broncos in the Super Bowl on Feb. 2. A source told cleveland.com that Quinn wanted to wait until after the game to interview with the Browns a second time.

But given a little more time, Quinn might have agreed to interview by Sunday, which is permitted by league rules. Seahawks coach Pete Carroll had already made it clear he wouldn't stand in Quinn's way.

In the meantime, Pettine, the former Buffalo defensive coordinator, was growing increasingly anxious about keeping the Bills and head coach Doug Marrone waiting, and considered withdrawing his name. It took the Browns seven days to wrap him up, from their first interview last Thursday to their third a week later.

"That was starting to wear on me these last couple of days," Pettine told WGR-AM 550, the home of the Bills. "I talked to Doug and it was getting to the point where I'd say, 'Hey, if this goes on much longer I need to pull out, because it's just not fair to the Bills.'"

Pettine, who blew the Browns away in his initial interview, told cleveland.com on Wednesday afternoon from the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., that he hoped to have some feedback on the job by that night. With so many new head coaches vying for candidates, the Bills were getting in a bind if they needed to find a defensive coordinator. On Thursday, the Browns hired Pettine after another hour-long session in Berea, signing him to a five-year contract.

But Browns CEO Joe Banner admitted Thursday that Quinn was still in the mix right up until the final day -- and that eliminating him was the toughest decision he had to make in the process.

“I think we felt that we knew (Quinn) well enough to make the comparison,'' said Banner. "That was a tough decision, frankly. He’s an outstanding guy, an outstanding coach. There’s no doubt in our mind that he’ll be an excellent head coach, so that was a tough call. That’s probably the toughest decision, because there’s no doubt we were very impressed with him in the interview. He’s got a lot of people around the league that think very highly of him, but in the end we decided to move forward.”

Banner added that if they felt Quinn would have been "likely to be prevail, we would not like to have taken 10 more days of the pummeling, but we would’ve waited.”

Pettine said the Bills didn't put any pressure on him to pull out and were supportive.

"They've been nothing but first-class about this whole thing," Pettine told WGR. "Just the way that they've handled it, almost kind of talking to me saying, 'Hey listen, you never know when you're gonna get this opportunity, so hang in there.' "

In fact, Marrone -- who interviewed for the Browns head coaching job last year -- helped Pettine prepare for the process.

"Well, he had interviewed with the Browns a year ago, so he was very familiar with how the interviews were structured and who I'd be meeting with and the questions that were being asked," Pettine said. "He had researched the franchise. It was a situation where he had a lot of good information for me. It was very helpful."

Pettine admitted during his hiring press conference and later to WGR that it was tough to leave the Bills after one season as coordinator there.

"It's truly bittersweet for me,'' Pettine said. "I'm walking out of a defensive room away from some great players and some guys that I've bonded with and built some great relationships with. The regret I have is unfinished business there. I think we were getting ready, that we had started something that was going to be special there, and I didn't get a chance to finish that. That to me, like I said, that's what makes (Thursday) bittersweet for me.

"I was fully set on looking forward to next year with the Bills," Pettine remarked. "When this opportunity presented itself, I attacked it head-on and was fortunate enough to land the job."

Pettine is in the process of trying to hire Bills linebackers coach Jim O'Neil as his defensive coordinator.

Meanwhile, Quinn told reporters in Seattle that he had no regrets about staying put.

“I had a good visit with (Cleveland) and a lot of respect certainly for their organization and Joe Banner and Jimmy Haslam,” Quinn told Seattle reporters. “I also had a good visit with the guys at Minnesota, and both of those guys have hired some great coaches. It was a great experience to go through and even more importantly having the support of John Schneider and Pete Carroll to have a chance to be so supportive of that.”

Quinn said he isn't frustrated about how things went.

“None. No, certainly not,” Quinn said. “I couldn’t be more fired up to be a part of this and moving forward here keeping the focus on our team, which it is. So none at all.”

Ironically, Quinn's dominant defense, which attracted the Browns to him in the first place, may win him a Super Bowl -- but it may have cost him another shot at the Browns job.

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